Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes the iPhone 8’s diminishing new features list, a $1000 iPhone, the return of the iPhone 6, the future of the Mac, secrets of Portrait Mode, HDR going RAW in Lightroom, what is the iPad good for, and why people are switching to Windows 10.

Some curiously bad news from Mac Otakara in regards the new hardware in the iPhone 8. Following last week’s news that the curved screen would be dropped, more features appear to be in danger of being removed from the tenth-anniversary iPhone. Forbes contributor Gordon Kelly:

“Multiple prototype models exist for this model and the development continues to be carried out in parallel with EVT [engineering validation tests]. The production level of development on various models are being done such as the models with IPS TFT, AMOLED, the model with or without home button, in addition to the models with a new glass, aluminum chassis, white ceramics etc.”

OLED was thought to be a shoo-in at this stage, so it’s concerning to think this could fall by the wayside like its once mooted revolutionary charging.

Following the same trend as Samsung and Google (see this week’s Android Circuit) Apple is expected to price the iPhone 8 from $1000 in the US market. Hopefully there will be enough new hardware to promote, much it will be familiar to the wider smartphone world. Can the price be justified?

This would mean the iPhone 8 has the largest display of any iPhone ever made and is significantly larger than any current mass-market smartphones (though the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus will change that). The good news for those worried the iPhone 8 will be too big is corroborating reports say Apple will shrink the top and bottom bezels to make it smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus.

The pain point is Nikkei claims the iPhone 8 will be the most expensive smartphone Apple has ever released. Again this ties in with a recent report from KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo that this flagship model will cost in excess of $1,000.

There’s a new iPhone in town, as a gold-colored iPhone 6 arrives with 32 GB of storage – double the entry-level storage of the original 6. But if you want this handset, you’re going to have to look outside of America, not in your local Apple store. Benjamin Mayo has more:

Apple is not selling the 32 GB iPhone 6, which is only offered in a gold casing, at retail stores or on its website. It continues to sell the iPhone SE as its low-end option which has better internal components than the iPhone 6, but does not have a larger screen.

Whilst Apple is keeping quiet, Taiwan Mobile is pushing the ‘new’ iPhone as a special limited-edition promotion. It is advertising it as the cheapest iPhone ever to be offered on its network and is already accepting pre-orders. The carrier is selling the device for ‘free’ with a NT$1,399/month contract plan (about $45 USD) that lasts for 30 months.

How do you solve a problem like the Macintosh? As all of Apple’s development focus switches to mobile hardware, does Apple still want to be a PC manufacturer? The signs are that it does not, argues Daniel Dilger as he takes a comprehensive look at the macOS machines’ ecosystem:

Thinking about the future of Apple’s Macintosh becomes more realistic when grounded in facts. It’s no accident that several Mac models have not been updated in many months, but it’s also true that Apple faces real constraints in dramatically expanding its Mac sales. Here’s a look at what’s involved, and what’s possible for the future of Apple’s graphical mouse-based computing platform.